Wildcat Pride: From Associate Head Coach to National Champ?

[jksander]

May 1, 2020
My name is Jonathan Sanders. At 38, I am finally getting the chance to live my basketball coaching dream, as I join the Arizona Wildcats as their top assistant for the upcoming basketball season. I played as a four-year walkon from 2001-02 thorugh the 2004-05 seasons, coming in right after the team's National Championship loss (2000-01) and participating in three Pac 10 title seasons but falling short of playing on a Final Four team. I wasn't great, but Lute Olsen gave me playing time in clean-up during blowouts, and I was a key practice man. Most important, I was able to watch the man coach for four years and soak in his knowledge of the game – and spent a year as a graduate assistant afterward, which was great because I was able to be part of a third Elite Eight.

Since then I've been coaching small high schools in the southwest, honing my skills and doing what I can to get back into the game of college basketball. My goal, obviously, is to one day coach the Wildcats myself. Until then I'll serve as their top recruiting coach, hitting the road to hopefully build a National Champion to rival the 1997 team that beat Kentucky in the final.

I have signed a two year contract worth $187,000 per season. We will start the 2020-21 season ranked 9th in the nation.

June 26, 2020
Reports say we have the 5th ranked class in the upcoming season, which means my work as a first-year recruiter is cut out for me … the goal is clear. Bring in top recruits, and keep Arizona as a premier place to play for those who have legitimate hopes of deep NCAA tourney runs and a shot at the NBA.

First-year head coach Anthony Rohwer is in the same boat as me, with a lot to lose following the program's choice to fire Sean Miller and promote him from Associate Head Coach as the FBI investigations dragged on. We need to win this year while showing that we can run a clean program. I will be tasked with building the call and visit lists, watching video and handling most of the initial phone-calling and visiting among potential recruits, while Rohwer will make all scholarship offers.

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FYI, I realized I did not install a "real world" mod for this dynasty, so I may wind up reverting to using the fake names like Western 12 Conference etc when I write stuff up. Forgive me

[PointGuard]

Nice start. Go out there and land a lot of top-flight recruits for Arizona. Good luck with moving up the ranks.

[jksander]

Nice start. Go out there and land a lot of top-flight recruits for Arizona. Good luck with moving up the ranks.

Thanks PG I've been wanting to try being AHC for a while ... much harder, bc you are laser focused on ONE aspect rather than all the coaching, and the coach can still **** you over by skipping your best prospects

[jksander]

September 25, 2020
Our upcoming season's schedule has been announced, including a trip to the Preseason NIT, a road game against #23 Texas and a home game against #13 North Indy. We are preseason ranked #9, along with #6 Oregon and #25 Cal-Los Angeles within the Western 12.

October 16, 2020
Coach Anthony Rohwer clearly isn't happy with me as his recruiting coach, or I feel I would have more input on the kind of players we've targeted this season. I've had a lot of top players in the west region admit they've been interested in playing for us, but that they aren't hearing back from Rohwer and they feel neglected. So far our only recruit is ranked in the mid-200s, and though I remain focused on hitting the road to help with recruiting and future scouting, I'm thinking this may be my only year at Arizona as I hope to attract interest from Athletic Directors searching for head coaches with recruiting strength.

A big part of this is Rohwer's lame-duck status – rumor has it the school wants to spend the year running its own search for a more “nationally regarded” head coach, that Rohwer is in charge only because the FBI investigation only left them a short time to fill the position.

[jksander]

[b]Season Summary[/b]
We opened the year 3-2, beating Marshall and Michigan State, but losing in the Preseason NIT Semifinals to #3 Kansas 81-64 and to Texas on the road 85-62. Eight wins later, we hit the road against Utah and lost 72-63, before beating Cali, So-Cal and AZ State before a humbling blowout loss at Colorado, 101-68.

At that point in the season nothing suggested we were anything “legitimate.” We were 13-4 but 1-3 in true “road” games, and we weren't even losing to great teams. We were beating ourselves. But in mid-January we just clicked, ripping off 14 straight wins, before losing in the West 12 tournament to Oregon 69-83. With a 16-2 conference record and two wins in the conference tourney before the Oregon loss, we earned the 2-seed in the Minneapolis bracket of the NCAA Tourney.

From there it was a season we'll all remember. We blew out (15) Grand Canyon 92-46 in the opening round, then earned a Sweet 16 bid with a hard-fought 80-72 victory over Stanford. We knocked Spokane out of the running with a 73-64 win over the 3-seed in the next round, then took out (5) Ohio State in a 92-72 blowout to earn a Final Four bid, only our 5th in school history and first since 2001! An 80-65 decimation of (1) Kentucky put us in the national title game, which we won easily over (6) Maryland 86-73, beating an overmatched foe to take home the program's second-ever National Title (and first since 1997!)

Our 33-5 (16-2) record and title win was enough to win the board over on behalf of Coach Rohwer, who signed a five-year extension worth nearly $1.6 million per season over the next six seasons. The board offered to increase my salary to $196,000 over the same period, but I chose instead to accept the job of Head Coach at the University of Nebraska in the Midwest 10! My job will be to take a team that went 13-16 (9-9) last year (tied for 6th in the conference) into a winner in one of the most storied leagues in the land. A first-round Mid-10 tourney loss won't suffice in the future.


Coach Info
Name: Jonathan Sanders (39)
Experience: 1st Year (0-0)
Salary: $308,000 / 5 years
Reputation: Good
Ambition: High
Academics: High
Discipline: High
Temper: Low
Offense: 86
Defense: 68
Recruiting: 100
Scouting: 54
Player Dev: 79

Team Info
School: Nebraska Harvesters
Location: Lincoln NE
Arena: Nebraska Center (13,595)
Facilities: B-
Academics: B-
Conference: Midwest 10
Conf Prestige: 82
School Prestige: 40
Minimum SAT: 920

Seven NCAA Appearances, but we've never made the Sweet Sixteen.
18 NIT Appearances and one title.

Team Goals
Qualify for the NIT
Finish in the top half of Mid-10
Finish above .500
Improve the school's prestige

June 26, 2021
With a miniscule recruiting budget of $38,500, we've decided to avoid wasting money on extra scouting reports and trips to tournaments, relying on my reputation as a “hit the streets” recruiter of players we legitimately think we can land here at Nebraska. We only have to fill two scholarships, so I can aim high when necessary, but I want to make sure we don't blow through the entire budget by November, in case I need to find someone during spring recruiting to fill a spot.

[PointGuard]

Wow, 'Zona came thru big time! Congrats on the new job...good idea to move on to a head coaching job (and you're making that $100K+ more than you would have as an asst at Arizona. Nebraska could be a big challenge since there are some perennial big time basketball teams in your conference.

[jksander]

Yeah I had three real choices: Nebraska (40) Utah (60) and Indiana (75). I took Nebraska because Utah was out due to already being in the same conference as Arizona. And I didn't want to jump into Indiana at that prestige level, which I saw as essentially a non-challenge. Yeah, my guy is a top notch recruiter, but going into Nebraska with no budget, and then bringing in the kind of classes to make us competitive against the big guys, if I turn them into a perennial NCAA team, I can make a leap to a bigger job down the road and have it feel legitimately earned.

[PointGuard]

Good choice!

[jksander]

Team Roster
PG – George Coleman (6'1” 170 lbs Sr) Scottsbluff NE (Scottsbluff HS) 2.0/3.5 (3.4 GPA) 2.9 ppg 1.9 apg
SG – Kevin West (6'1” 192 lbs Sr) Raymond NE (Raymond Central HS) 4.0/4.0 (3.4 GPA) 11.4 ppg 5.3 rpg 2.7 apg
SF – Gerald Evans (6'7” 219 lbs Jr) Pender NE (Pender HS) 3.0/5.0 (2.9 GPA) 12.0 ppg 5.2 rpg 1.1 apg
PF – Joe Sawyer (6'6” 233 lbs So) Ralston NE (Ralston HS) 3.0/4.0 (2.4 GPA) 6.6 ppg 2.6 rpg 0.7 apg
C – Geoff Claxton (6'8” 273 lbs Jr) Tekamah NE (Tekamah-Herman HS) 3.5/4.0 (3.5 GPA) 6.7 ppg 7.3 rpg 1.8 apg

6 – Dennis Jones (6'4” 177 lbs Jr) Plainview NE (Plainview HS) 2.0/3.0 (4.0 GPA) 0.5 ppg 0.4 rpg 0.8 apg
7 – Bart Hendrick (6'6” 220 lbs So) Superior NE (Superior HS) 2.0/4.0 (3.4 GPA) 4.3 ppg 1.5 rpg 0.3 apg
8 – Ammett King (6'6” 212 lbs So) Tekamah NE (Tekamah-Herman HS) 2.0/3.5 (4.0 GPA) 5.2 ppg 2.0 rpg 0.6 apg
9 – Matt McIntosh (6'8” 251 lbs Jr) Wilcox NE (Wilcox-Hildreth HS) 2.0/3.0 (3.5 GPA) 4.0 ppg 3.3 rpg 0.9 apg
10 – Reggie Kitchings (6'11” 295 lbs Fr) Lincoln NE (Northeast HS) 1.5/4.0 (3.4 GPA) did not play
11 – Jermaine English (6'0” 185 lbs Fr RS) Curtis NE (Medicine Valley HS) 0.5/0.5 (4.0 GPA) did not play
12 – Travis Shipp (6'3” 210 lbs Jr) Columbus NE (Columbus HS) 2.0/3.5 (2.5 GPA) 3.7 ppg 1.1 rpg 1.1 apg
13 – Charlton Bullett (6'7” 209 lbs Jr) Chappell NE (Chappell-Lodgepole HS) 0.0/0.0 (2.9 GPA) did not play

RS – Mario Sharp (6'10” 233 lbs Fr) Platte SD (Platte HS) 1.5/4.0 (2.1 GPA)
RS – Bernard Hordemann (6'8” 270 lbs Fr RS) Salina KS (Sacred Heart HS) 0.5/3.0 (2.3 GPA)

I think my first recruiting season went spectacularly, as we landed two top-100 players! Doc Collins, a 6'6” forward from Parkston, South Dakota's Parkston HS is ranked 32nd in the nation, while another forward, 6'6” Colorado native Ben Gilbert, of Grand Junction's Central HS, is ranked 72nd nationally. Both should get significant playing time, with potential to transition to guard while playing swing roles. Collins is the best-rounded player, a top rated scorer, passer and defender who can out-rebound anyone on a good day. He also is a solid athlete with incredible upside. Gilbert is more raw, though he's a solid scorer (particularly inside) and has “A”-level athleticism and solid overall potential. Both were highly recruited by top 25 teams, and should give us a significant boost in the coming seasons.

As for our upcoming schedule …

November
13 – (n) Philadelphia (Coaches Classic)
21 – Muncie
24 – Evansville
28 – Indianapolis

December
1 – Fort Wayne
5 – Texas A&M
8 – Illinois-Chicago
13 - @ Omaha
19 – Indiana State
26 - @ #2 Michigan
29 - #11 Wisconsin

January
2 - @ #22 Michigan State
5 – Illinois
9 - @ #13 Indiana
12 - #2 Michigan
16 - @ #9 Maryland
19 – Ohio State
23 - @ Minnesota
26 – West Lafayette
30 - @ New Brunswick

February
2 – Penn State
6 - @ #11 Wisconsin
9 - @ Iowa
13 – Evanstown
16 - #22 Michigan State
20 - @ Illinois
23 - #13 Indiana

[jksander]

Had some issues with my notes, as well as a mistake I made after my first Nebraska season wherein I fucked up and fired a coach and made coaching changes in the wrong week, which meant I'd already saved before I realized my recruiting budget was shot. So I'm going to post an abbreviated update on the 2021-22 season as well as the 2022-23 season as I finish it. At that point I fully expect to be on the verge of firing and then will begin reporting in more detail. As messed up as this is for my usual fastidious reporting, I just don't have the heart to start a new sim, so I'm making it work lol

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Our 2021-22 campaign did not go particularly well, leaving us hoping that our solid recruiting class may give us enough player talent next year to get us back into the Midwest 10 competition. As it was, our 2021-22 campaign saw us limp into the conference season with a 3-6 record and then collapse. We finished 8-20 overall, 5-13 in the Midwest 10, and lost in our opening round game in the conference tourney to a middling Penn State team. My job security took a huge hit, and we had a major coaching shake-up among my assistants which took a huge toll on our upcoming season's recruiting budget. It's questionable among my peers whether I can turn this ship around or if I wasn't indeed ready after all to leave the ranks of "assistants" in the coaching world.